540 



MILITAKY SUKGEKY AND MEDICINE. 



o. 6. Fio. 6. 



and summer of 1864. The Sanitary Commis- 

 sion, desirous to relieve the suffering thus caused, 

 ordered the construction of a number of hos- 

 pital cars, from drawings made by Elisha Har- 

 ris, M. D. In these cars the seats are removed, 

 and the stretchers in which the patients are 

 brought suspended upon gutta percha or rubber 

 loops, and secured from swaying. There were 

 five or six of them on the Atlanta, Chattanooga, 

 Nashville, and Louisville route, with the sur- 

 geons' car in the centre of the train, with 

 kitchen, dispensary, nurses, assistant-surgeons, 

 and apothecaries in attendance, and the sick 

 and wounded had the same care and attention 

 they could have had in the best regulated hos- 

 pitals. The same number have been constantly 

 running between "Washington, New York, and 

 Boston. 



The introduction of new and more deadly 

 missiles intc modern warfare has considerably 



modified the methods of treatment as "well as 

 the diagnosis and prognosis of gunshot wounds. 

 The old round bullet produced wounds far less 

 formidable than those inflicted by the Hinie' 

 ball, or the shell, which have played so promi- 

 nent a part in the battles of this war. The 

 round musket-ball had a much lower initial 

 velocity, was readily deflected from its course 

 by coming in contact with bone, tendon or 

 even firm muscular tissue, and if it penetrated 

 the large cavities usually made a clean perfor- 

 ation of a diameter but little larger than its 

 own. The Minie, on the contrary makes a 

 ragged ugly wound, and passes straight on 

 through muscle, tendon, cartilage, and bone, 

 producing terrible comminuted fractures of the 

 latter ; and if it does not pass entirely through, 

 usually comes to the skin on the opposite side 

 from that which it perforated, and lying there, 

 presenting its long diameter to the surface, 



